Risk Taker
by qqthe
Summary: She would move the world for them, or die trying. Hinata-centric.


Parry.

Parry.

Block.

Parry.

Riposte.

The kunai was now deeply embedded in the opponent's left shoulder. The enemy, showing his experience and rank, ignored the pain and before Hinata could let go of the kunai, he took hold of her forearm and intuitively tried slashing her wrist with the kunai in his right hand. At the last second, she managed to move her arm a little so that the weapon deeply impacted her wrist, getting stuck in her flesh in the process. Not giving him time to get the weapon out of her flesh, she bit his forearm that was still holding on to his kunai and with her free left hand, she aimed at his heart a palm strike full of chakra.

He blocked with his right knee, which shattered upon impact with her hand. The pain was too much and for a second he succumbed to the darkness, but a second was all she needed. As he lost all bearing of this world and let go of the kunai still stuck in her flesh, she took out the kunai that was still in his shoulder and slit his throat, ending him.

Ino, seeing all that transpired, turned her head back on her teammate, she had to get Shikamaru stable. Already she had lost too much time being concerned for Hinata, whom was guarding her back as Ino tried healing the Nara up to the point where it wouldn't be fatal for him to be moved.

"Ino-chan, three more of them are on the way, is Shikamaru-kun stable enough to be moved?" Hinata asked, her Byakugan activated, scanning ahead.

"He is, for now, but he needs blood transfusion, we need to get him to the village as soon as possible," the blonde answered, chewing her lip in worry. They wouldn't be able to outrun their pursuers with Shikamaru incapacitated.

Hinata walked over to her. "You go on ahead with Shikamaru-kun, I will distract them. Don't stop for anything."

Ino was having none of it though. "I can't leave you here alone, you will get killed, or worse!".

"It doesn't matter," Hinata answered in her soft tone. "What matters is Shikamara-kun, he has the information memorized, better you save him than the possibility of us all dying and the mission ending in failure," Ino remained unconvinced.

Seeing this, Hinata pleaded with her. "I beg you Ino-chan, they are almost upon us, if you don't go soon, Shikamaru-kun might not make it without the blood transfusion."

The decision to be made was tearing Ino apart.

"Promise me," she said.

"Promise me you will make it back alive, promise me on your life or else I am not budging!" she said, sad resoluteness in her eyes as well as a certain wetness obscuring her sight she hadn't felt in a long time.

"I promise," The Hyuga girl answered, giving her a small smile which the Yamanaka returned, the irony in the promise not lost to them both.

"Ino-chan, I will need all the explosives you have and any other weapon that you can do without," Hinata told her.

Ino gave her most of her kunais and shuriken, as well as all the explosive tags. She needed speed, and all these items would encumber her, since she would be carrying the Nara over a great distance. Hinata on the other hand needed all the weapons she could carry, since she would serve as the distraction.

Finally ready to leave, Ino jumped in to the trees, Shikamaru on her right shoulder. Sparring a last glance at Hinata, who stood in the middle of the clearing, her right hand still bleeding from the previous kunai wound Ino didn't have the time nor the chakra to heal. The Hyuga stood there, unwavering, as 3 figures jumped in to the clearing to face her. Ino deduced that they were already debriefed that they would be facing a Hyuga, so there was no need for them to be hiding in the trees.

Another jump and Ino was beyond their sight, as she took off, full speed ahead, not looking back.

One mile in, and she heard a series of explosions where she had left Hinata. Another mile and more explosions, she dared not look back, for fear of what she would do. Hardening her heart and will, she carried on, thinking back on another mission she had with Hinata, where they were hunting two unstable nins.

Said girl had covered Ino with her own body, as the whole area was set ablaze by the two suicidal maniacs, they had killed themselves in the process. Whilst Ino was relatively unharmed, except for a few burns here and there, Hinata's back body was horribly scorched and only having the blonde medic on sight had saved the Hyuga's life on that day. Ino would never forget it, nor the look of happiness that appeared on Hinata's face, even amidst all the burns that littered her fair skin. "Ino-chan, you are s-safe."

She had promised herself to somehow repay Hinata for that day and all the others, but the Hyuga had rebuked her for that line of thinking, saying that Ino's medical skills had saved her life countless times, in her own words, " _I am expandable, Ino-chan is not."_ The raven haired woman seemed to hold her friends in high esteem it seemed.

Rousing herself from her memories, she tried gaining more speed, as even more explosions were set off, their sound muffled by the distance between the blonde and the battlefield.

* * *

Breath in.

Breath out.

Ino concentrated on these words as she willed her body to keep moving.

For six hours she travelled like this, only stopping temporarily to check up on Shikamaru, when finally she could see the walls of Konoha. Tall. Strong. A sense of hope filled her as she redoubled her efforts.

One mile away from the wall, a medic team intercepted her, she almost crashed in to them. They were probably informed by the Hyugas on the wall of the approaching pair. After putting Shikamaru on a stretcher as well as starting a blood transfusion, they sped off in to the village.

Ino still needed to see her mission commander for a rescue mission. Hinata was still missing.

Using the last reserves of her energy, she quickly made it to the Hokage tower, but instead of knocking on the Hokage's door, she went for the Anbu door.

Officially, the mission was commissioned by the Anbu leader as a normal mission, unofficially it was still an Anbu specific mission. In their makeshift team, only Shikamaru was in Anbu, though he had asked specifically for Hinata and Ino if he were to accomplish this mission. Sasuke had agreed and made a request to Naruto, the current Hokage, for the two kunoichi.

Knocking on his door, she heard the reply from inside and allowed herself to enter.

It was funny, one would imagine the room of the head of the assassination squad to be covered in darkness, full of mystery. Instead, it looked no different than the Hokage's room, filled with good lighting, bookshelves, mission scrolls and other such items. It seemed Sasuke wanted at least some light in his present life.

As she stood at attention in front of him, he analyzed her from head to toe.

"Where is the rest of your team?" he asked with his monotone voice.

"Shikamaru is in intensive care as we speak, Hin-Hinata-chan stayed behind on the border," here she encircled the position on the desk map, "as a distraction to our pursuers. Last I saw, she was facing 3 opponents, Hunter-nin from Iwa probably." as she relayed all this information, she didn't fail to notice how his hand clenched the pen until it finally snapped.

"This was her idea, I gather," it wasn't a question, he knew it had to be. That fool.

"The mission?" he questioned.

"Mission was a success," she answered, worry still gnawing at her for her friend's life.

"Go rest, the mission report can wait, I will form a rescue team for the missing team member, and no you can't be part of it!" he told her before she had even said anything.

Abruptly closing her mouth, she controlled her anger. Deep inside, she knew her being on the team would be a liability, she was on the verge of collapse, the run towards the village having consumed all the energy she had and more.

"Can I at least know who would be on the rescue team?" she murmured, defeated.

"Shino and Kiba for tracking purposes, Shen as the medic-nin... and me," he said with a faraway look in his dark orbs.

"You? Why? Who will-" she was interrupted.

"Kakashi can take my place, now go."

She left his office, confused, angry and still worried for her friend's life.

Still, she needed to check up on Shikamaru. Somehow, telling Naruto about Hinata's current situation didn't even cross her mind.

* * *

"You are summoned to the Anbu headquarters, the mission demands urgency." having said that, the masked-nin disappeared.

Shino, Kiba and Akamaru promptly made their way to the HQ, their sense of dredge reflected in the whitening of their knuckles.

* * *

"Hinata is missing. To secure the success of Team 23, she had offered herself as target for what the current intel thinks are 3 Iwagakure Hunter-nins. Our team is to find her body and secure her... dead or alive," at this, both Shino's and Kiba's breathing hitched, Akamaru looked down and Shen nodded, having no previous relation with the girl in question.

Sasuke carried on, ignoring their reactions.

"Against such odds, the probability is high that she will be dead, but she has survived worse events than these, so there is still a chance. Any questions?"

"Why are you joining us?" Kiba barked at him, ignoring the fact that he was talking to his superior. Hinata was missing and he was worried about her current condition and now Sasuke wanted to join their retrieval team. The fuck.

"Cooped up in this office is making me rusty, I need some exercise," he deadpanned. Nobody believed him. The sound of Kakashi face palming could be heard from the dark corner.

"Nothing else? Then we move."

The four ninjas plus one dog disappeared.

Kakashi walked out of the corner he was leaning on, sat down on the chair and opened his book. His thoughts were wandering from the novel though, for he was thinking about other similar situations pertaining to the Hyuga.

He needed to check out the mission archives.

Getting out of the office, he told the guards where he could be found in case of an emergency.

* * *

It didn't take them long to arrive at the destination that Ino had circled on the map.

What was once a clearing in the forest, through battle had been forcefully turned into craters littering the moss ground. Trees were turned up, some still burning from whatever explosive action they were victim of, others were torn to shreds.

Kiba quickly got a hold of her scent and the team followed him.

It seemed like the battle had started where they had arrived, but had extended eastward.

After 15 minutes of walking east, they found a hand that clearly belonged to a male.

A few feet later they found the owner of said hand. Shen confirmed that he died of internal injuries. Probably the gentle fist.

A few hundred feet more, they discovered the body of the second Iwa-nin, a kunai had pierced his cranium, as well as the brain. Ignoring him, they carried on, always east.

A mile in, they finally found her.

A katana held her up against the tree. The sword had pierced her underneath her right clavicle, went out through her shoulder muscles and embedded itself in the trunk of the tree. The person wielding the katana had put enough strength in to that one strike that the guard of the sword was nearly touching her shoulder blade. They also noticed that her right hand was completely demolished, broken in multiple places.

Her head hanging low, hair obscuring her eyes, they could still see the blood dripping down her chin. Her clothes were in tatters, bruises and cuts visible beneath them. A piece of shrapnel of wooden origin had fixed itself in the left side of her stomach, protruding through her left side.

Her right-side leg muscles were in worse shape than the rest of her. As if a scalpel had cut through them, they were opened up, the inside flesh visible to the eye.

At her feet was the mangled corpse of the third ninja, lower half missing, whilst the top was destroyed beyond recognition. Probably the work of explosives.

Shino stood in tense silence, whole body coiled with anger and shock, barely able to move. Was this the fate of his teammate? Kiba on the other hand lashed out at the nearest tree, pulverizing it. His breath was escaping him in a raged rhythm, losing a precious friend and feeling powerless to have stopped it always hurt.

 _'We are a team. Nothing will change that, not now, not ever.'_

He smashed another tree as he remembered her words.

Sasuke stood next to Shino, just as tense as the bug user, his thoughts a guarded turmoil, as he watched Shen make his way to Hinata.

The medic-nin took in her condition and tried sensing her heartbeat, expecting nothing.

He felt it, small, flickering, barely there.

Of course, how could he be so stupid, she was still bleeding, from her various smaller wounds, which meant a high probability of the heart still being active. Her more serious injuries were plugged, so to speak, thus slowing down the possibility of bleeding out.

Getting to work, he yelled out, "She is still alive, but barely!"

This got the attention of others, hope reigniting the light in their eyes.

"I will need to do an emergency procedure on the field to get her ready for the journey home, she may still make it."

Now determined, the others offered their help. They would not fail her.

* * *

Deep in the mission archives of Konoha, Kakashi looked on in shock at the folder pertaining one Hinata Hyuga. Over 800 missions, mostly B rank or above. At her age, this was insanity. Reading them, he understood that she willingly took on these missions, meaning they were not forced upon her. He found this strange, ninjas were encouraged to take some time off between difficult assignments so as to recuperate. She didn't seem to have taken a single day's rest if she could help it.

Her medical documents spanned some several folders, which he found confusing, looking around he observed that everyone else had only one medical folder attributed to them, which was color coded pink. Looking through her medical history, he quickly understood why.

The number of injuries she had sustained throughout her carrier was mindboggling. He couldn't understand how she was even walking, let alone fighting.

Grabbing a hold of all the folders, he piled them up in his hands. He needed to see Naruto.


End file.
